Big Game | The Blacklist “The Deer Hunter” Review

The hunter becomes the hunted in The Blacklist’s “The Deer Hunter.” Raymond Reddington and the FBI Task Force are on the case of a serial killer who has murdered 12 people in over a decade. Lizzie even gives us the background of the case while she’s presenting the particulars at a graduate course. The Deer Hunter is a man who kills other men most likely because he has daddy issues. These are crimes of domination. He guts the men, takes ceremonial bite out of their livers, and then hangs them to put them on display.

Reddington meets with Lizzie to ask about the Fulcrum. He can tell that she’s lying and makes her a deal. Reddington agrees to help them catch The Deer Hunter in exchange for all of the information Lizzie has on The Fulcrum. It seems that The Deer Hunter may not have even been on Reddington’s famous Blacklist because he says that serial killers don’t interest them, since they are unimaginative.

Since Red is such a smart ass, he immediately begins the case by telling the FBI that they’re wrong. He tells them that the reason they can’t find the Deer Hunter is because they are looking for a man when he is in fact a woman. Lizzie automatically pushes back on his and says that it has to be a man. Lizzie and Ressler go to visit the Medical Examiner in order to take a look at the Deer Hunter’s latest victim. When they get there, they catch a young man who had taken photos of the body. He was a crime enthusiast who believed that the Deer Hunter that they were chasing is actually a copycat. The original Deer Hunter, according to him, was an artist who was constantly changing his methods although this copycat never changed.

Ressler actually seems to believe the kid and looks into the whole copycat notion. Ressler had Amar look into the bites from the first six victims and compare it to the bites from the last six victims. It was clear that they were from two separate killers. We find out that the copycat Deer Hunter is a woman who is a killer for hire. She finds her victims through Whitehaven Shelters. Whitehaven is an organization who is supposed to help women get away from men who harass or stalk them.

Whitehaven can’t save all of these women, so that’s where the copycat Deer Hunter steps in. These women actually hire the copycat Deer Hunter to kill the potentially abusive men in their lives. When Lizzie goes after her, the copycat Deer Hunter gets the best of her and strings her up. She explains that her husband was the original Deer Hunter and the only way to help these women was to continue using his methods to get rid of these evil men. Well, the FBI swoop in just in the knick of time as always and the Deer Hunter is in custody.

The next part of the episode dealt with the case of the harbormaster that Tom killed. Detective Wilcox has everything he needs from the Samoan in order to make a case against both Tom and Liz. He holds on to the Samoan as an accessory to the crime, and he will only be free to go if he testifies against Lizzie in federal court. Wilcox informs Lizzie that he knows all about her and her husband’s involvement in the death of the harbormaster. She confides in Ressler who tells her to go to Harold Cooper. Cooper may have some pull with the Assistant US Attorney in order to keep Lizzie out of trouble. Also, they don’t want anyone to know what they are truly doing with this task force.

Luckily for Lizzie, Raymond Reddington is always on her side. It should surprise no one that Raymond has a cop in his pocket. The cop came bearing more than one gift. First, he told Red the time of the Samoan’s transfer, so they could sit down for a chat. Second, he brought Red a homemade coffee cake that his wife made. It’s just the touch that makes you love Raymond Reddington. Reddington does in fact interrupt the Samoan’s transfer. He offers him a deal. The Samoan’s brother needs a heart transplant, but who knows if he will actually get one before he dies. Reddington agrees to get the brother a new heart with the best surgeons available by the end of the week, if the Samoan doesn’t give up Lizzie. When the Samoan is in for his next interview, he completely recants his statement much to Detective Wilcox’s displeasure.

Reddington needed some outside help from Amar in this episode. He is still trying to figure out who is on the other end of the mysterious phone number found in Fitch’s safe. Red was supposed to meet with this man during the same time as the Samoan’s transfer. Since he will always choose Lizzie, he chose to talk with the Samoan in order to save her. He then enlists Amar’s help to figure out where the calls are originating. He finds the home of the mysterious man, but all that’s in the apartment is a little bit of furniture, some pools of blood and the phone he was using. So who was this man and what happened to him?

Editor's Rating

Overall–85%

By the end of the Deer Hunter case, Reddington finally got the answer he wanted about The Fuclrum. Lizzie reveals that she, in fact, has The Fulcrum. She wants to know everything about it, but Red isn’t ready to let he know. He’s too worried about her safety, but is she worried that Red will leave once he has the Fulcrum and never return? And what exactly is The Fulcrum? Sadly, it turned out that Tom wasn’t really back in this episode. The previews from last week just played tricks on us. I hope they aren’t just stringing us along and that he truly will be back next Thursday. What has he been up to? Does Tom have anything to do with The Fulcrum? Why would he ever come back? I’m sure all of our questions will not be answered anytime soon, but hopefully we will get some idea of what tom is up to in the coming episode.

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